Hello!

Hi Everyone! 

We had a great week this week! Nothing tooo terribly exciting happened though. 

We worked super duper hard to have lessons and to teach a lot this week and we saw a lot of success which was exciting. :) 

A few things that happened this week that don't normally happen:

We went on an exchange on Tuesday. Sister Geraldino came to Olympia 1/5 with me and we had fun. We got to do service lifting heavy wood on a bunny farm. And we went knocking with one of the Laurels in the ward. And we had a cool lesson in the Evening. 

On Wednesday we had district meeting. And I got to teach the first half of the training. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how important it is in the conversion process. 

Thursday was just weekly planning. That normally happens. 

It rained on Friday! Alllllll day Friday. And there was lightning and Thunder. Which I haven't seen/heard since getting to Washington. And we were told that we weren't out "finding' enough (not really, but kind of) so we knocked doors for 4 hours in the rain and really the rest of the day we were in the rain too. I actually really enjoyed the first few hours in the rain. The thunder was exciting and we were able to get our rain jackets out. People weren't really very nice to us though and throughout the day I felt the rain soak into my bones and by 9 at night I was pretty tired of being outside in the rain. 

Saturday though was really good we worked and worked and worked and ended up getting to teach the Restoration to FOUR different people that we found while knocking doors and street contacting. There is something so satisfying about teaching full lessons to people who are willing to listen. A return missionary in our ward, Lindsey also took us out to lunch on that day, and she is so sweet and willing to help. 

Sunday was loooonnnggg as normal. After this area, 3 hours of church is going to feel like a vacation! 

Other fun things:

I changed my hair. Now my part is on my right side of my head instead of my left. You won't be able to recognize me when I get home! 

My foot tan that I have been working all summer on is faintly visible. 

And I got to say the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting on Sunday. 

Besides that everything else was pretty normal. 

For my spiritual thought I want to share a bit of a talk that I read this morning. It's by Dieter F. Uchtdorf and it's called Four Titles. 

He says:

"We have all seen a toddler learn to walk. he takes a small step and totters. He falls. Do we scold such an attempt? Of course not. What father would punish a toddler for stumbling? We encourage, we applaud, and we praise because with every small step, the child is becoming more like his parents. 

... compared to the perfection of God, we mortals are scarcely more than awkward, faltering toddlers. But our loving Heavenly Father wants us to become more like Him, and that should be our eternal goal too. God understands that we get there not in an instant but by taking one step at a time.

I do not believe in a God who would set up rules and commandments only to wait for us to fail so He could punish us. I believe in a heavenly Father who is loving and caring and who rejoices in our every effort to stand tall and walk toward Him. Even when we stumble, he urges us not to be discouraged--never to give up or flee our allotted field of service--but to take courage, find our faith, and keep trying."

I love this quote, and I've actually been looking for it for a while, I stumbled upon it today while looking through the Priesthood Session talks from May 2013, and remembered  that my Heavenly Father is a loving Father, who cares so much about every step that I take, He cares about every time I fall, and He watches and waits and hopes that I'll reach out to Him for help. I don't really need to say too much about this quote, President Uchtdorf says it well enough. Just remember that it's okay to stumble, just make sure you get back up and try again. :) 

Have a great week! I love you all! 

Love, Sister Warburton

Pictures!!

This was a fun tree that we found while we were knocking. 

Us posing by a tree

Sister Evans next to a Kiwi. 

Our phrase in Washington is: "And in the Wa-Tac We Baptize!" Now it's turned into one of the suggestions our phone gives us when we type the word "and".  I thought that was funny.